PREFACE.
We know hardly another branch of chemical technology which has made such remarkable advances of late as the manufacture of colours; a large number of pigments have been recently discovered, distinguished by beauty of shade and permanence. Chemists are continually endeavouring to replace handsome and poisonous colours by others equally handsome but non-poisonous.
In writing this work I have endeavoured to give it such a character that it may be a text-book for the practical man, only those methods have been given which certainly lead to a good result; in the case of new pigments I have only described methods of preparation which I have myself found to give good results.
Since it cannot be imagined that any one quite ignorant of chemistry could successfully manufacture colours (colours being always made by chemical processes which occasionally are rather complicated), I have, therefore, presupposed a knowledge of the principles of chemistry. In the short sketch of the chemical properties of the raw materials used in making ordinary pigments, the principal properties of the materials used by the colour maker are given.
In order to make this treatise useful to dealers in and consumers of colours, the chapters dealing with the examination of pigments have been so arranged that the nature or adulteration of a pigment can be determined quickly and with certainty by any one.
Recipes, which originated at a time when empiricism ruled in chemistry, have been omitted, since they would only detract from the clearness of the matter.
As far as it is possible I have avoided the “recipe fetish,” and have endeavoured to make clear to the reader the chemical processes to which regard must be had in the manufacture of the different pigments. Since the appearance of the first edition there have been many valuable innovations in the mineral colour industry, to which regard has been given in preparing this second edition in so far as they possess a really practical value.
A critical examination of proposals and formulæ, which are found in large numbers in the journals, has been avoided, since I wished to keep for my book that character of a reliable text-book and book of reference which was ascribed to it in the form of its first edition.
Dr. JOSEF BERSCH.